The Liars' Club: A Memoir
by Mary Karr
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mary KarrEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-31
ISBN: 0143035746
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780143035749
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Liars' Club: A Memoir
Book Review: -- Memoir of an Awful Childhood Contains Beauty & Hope
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Liars' Club" is a memoir that mostly focuses on the author at ages seven and eight. The details begin with a mystery and continue with vivid and horrific details. I found it worthwhile reading because its story was riveting, its language masterful, and its scope complete. There's no wonder that it won impressive awards and was on The New York Times' Bestseller List for more than a year. Still, contrary to others' testimonials, I did not laugh; not once. Perhaps you will. It doesn't matter. What does matter is the depth of emotions the author shares and the beauty of the prevailing human interactions. The traumatic events are conveyed well and the entire work is handled with explicit and clever simplicity. Mary Karr's journey was devastating and overall it is hopeful. I recommend this book.
Even with all the "Not Rightness", beauty is a word that describes much of this book. Incidental delights alleviated some of the ugliness: bears foraged garbage, family meals were sometimes atop her parents' bed, she got to ride horses, and fields "spilled" with morning glories, bluebonnets and fireflies. But much more important than incidentals, was the intensity to which the reader becomes familiar with the family and extended family. They dramatically rose and fell to occasions... while a little girl and her sister grew up faster than anyone should have to grow.
The author attentively makes the best of situations and in doing so she copes and thereby hopes. As a child, Ms. Karr observes. She evaluates. She has respect for her own idiosyncracies and she makes both understandable and wise decisions. When crucial, she relies on her life-saving (and also very young) big sister, Lecia. Years later, the reader gets to see that she does get answers to the childish hopes for explanations and we are grateful.
Her family withstood challenges and love prevailed. In the beginning and throughout, Lecia (the sister) was deservedly appreciated. The ("Nervous") mother shared her art and worldliness. The father had good work ethics, created well-intended childhood events, stood up for his wife, and was proud of the author's ("Pokey's") accomplishments. The shared closeness of his "Liars' Club" friends (not the only liars of the book) was treasured. And in the end, those friends, mother, daughters, doctor, and even an old army officer was supportively generous. Finally, the author does get-together with her mother to resolve the mysteries that clouded traumatic times. And when all is said and done, we get an overview that is, in its understanding and acceptance, ultimately beautiful.
The book's structure supports the theme. I liked that the author's formative years (1961, 1963) were presented as strong as they were and occupied the bulk of the book. Circumstances demanded that weight. Then I liked the jump to 1980 with child-to-parent and parent-to-child developments. Unpleasant though some of it was, the progression was satisfying. Again, the journey is worthwhile. Once you start reading it, I believe you'll be compelled to complete it, too.
Further, the style is fine-tuned and honest. I marveled at the language and even the variable use of (and lack of) quotation marks. The tone is natural and, at the same time, it's brilliant. When the action is cruel, the heart-wrenching clarity works. Some raw descriptions were startling, while all of it rang true. Moreover, it helped that the book was obviously a joint family effort and that effort validated it's truth. Consequently, the entire approach -- language, style, honesty, and use of alternate memories -- kept my attention.
Therefore, I highly recommend reading "The Liars' Club". The horrors are real. The caring runs deep. Kudos to Mary Karr for so openly sharing her life with the reader. You won't envy her youth, but you will probably become absorbed in the journey and admire some of the child she was and the woman she became. I give this book a FIVE-star rating.
Summary of The Liars' Club: A Memoir
When it was published in 1995, Mary Karr?s The Liars? Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, as well as bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr?s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger?s?a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. Now with a new introduction that discusses her memoir?s impact on her family, this unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as ?funny, lively, and un-put-downable? (USA Today) today as it ever was
In this funny, razor-edged memoir, Mary Karr, a prize-winning poet and critic, looks back at her upbringing in a swampy East Texas refinery town with a volatile, defiantly loving family. She recalls her painter mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip into psychosis; a fist-swinging father who spun tales with his cronies--dubbed the Liars' Club; and a neighborhood rape when she was eight. An inheritance was squandered, endless bottles emptied, and guns leveled at the deserving and undeserving. With a raw authenticity stripped of self-pity and a poet's eye for the lyrical detail, Karr shows us a "terrific family of liars and drunks ... redeemed by a slow unearthing of truth."
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